The Best Beaches in Milos and How to Reach Each One

Milos is often credited with more beaches than any other island in the Cyclades, somewhere in the region of seventy. You will not see them all. This is an honest guide to the ones worth your days, including how difficult each one is to actually reach, which is the part most guides skip.

Which is the best beach in Milos?

For sheer spectacle, Sarakiniko. For an actual day on the sand, Firiplaka. Sarakiniko is a white volcanic moonscape with no sand and no shade, remarkable to look at and uncomfortable to spend six hours on. Firiplaka is a long stretch of sand under striped cliffs with easy access and usually calm water.

Most people who visit both end up photographing Sarakiniko and swimming at Firiplaka.

Sarakiniko

Best for: photographs, cliff jumping, an early-morning swim.
Access: easy, just off the Adamas–Pollonia road, about 15 minutes from the airport.
Transfer: €30 from the airport or Adamas.

Go before 10am or after 5pm. Between those hours the white rock reflects both light and heat with real force, there is nowhere to shelter, and the informal car park overflows onto the roadside. At either end of the day the rock goes warm and gold and the crowd thins considerably. Bring water; there is no kiosk. Read our full Sarakiniko guide before you go.

Firiplaka

Best for: a full day on sand, swimming, first-time visitors.
Access: straightforward, with the last stretch unsurfaced.
Transfer: €35 from Adamas port.

A long beach beneath dramatically striped volcanic cliffs, with sunbeds at one end and open sand beyond. The water is usually calm and shelves gently. It is the beach we send people to when they want one good beach day and do not want to think about it too hard. Arrive before 11am in August if you want to park.

Tsigrado

Best for: the adventurous, and only them.
Access: difficult. A rope and a wooden ladder through a narrow cleft in the rock.
Transfer: €35 from Adamas port, to the same drop-off as Firiplaka.

Tsigrado is a small pocket of sand at the bottom of a cliff, and the only way down is a rope-assisted scramble followed by a ladder through a gap in the rock. It is genuinely beautiful and genuinely not suitable for young children, anyone unsteady, or anyone carrying much. The good news is that Firiplaka is next door, so a group can split without anyone missing out.

Paleochori

Best for: lunch, warm water, a long lazy day.
Access: easy by Milos standards, around 25 minutes from Adamas.
Transfer: €40 from Adamas port, €45 from Pollonia.

Paleochori sits over geothermal activity, so patches of the sand and shallows are noticeably warm, in places hot enough to be startling underfoot. The tavernas here cook food in the volcanic ground, which is worth ordering once for the novelty and again because it is good. The beach is broad, partly organised with sunbeds, and backed by coloured cliffs.

Provatas

Best for: young children, easy swimming, a short trip.
Access: easy, fully surfaced most of the way.
Transfer: €40 from Pollonia.

Small, sandy, sheltered and shallow a long way out. Provatas is the least dramatic beach on this list and the one parents of small children keep going back to. There are a couple of tavernas and some organised sunbeds.

Agia Kyriaki

Best for: a quieter day with a taverna within reach.
Access: moderate, with an unsurfaced final approach.
Transfer: €35 from Adamas port.

Grey and black volcanic sand, clear water, and considerably fewer people than Firiplaka on the same day. A good choice in August when the better-known beaches are at capacity.

Can you reach Kleftiko by road?

No. Kleftiko is accessible only by sea. It is a set of white rock formations and sea caves on the south-west coast with no road access at all, visited on a half-day or full-day boat trip, most of which leave from Adamas.

Book the boat in advance in high season. We can get you to and from the harbour for the sailing, which matters for the early departures.

Which beach should you pick for the day?

• One beach day only — Firiplaka.
• Travelling with small children — Provatas.
• You want the photograph — Sarakiniko, early.
• You want lunch on the sand — Paleochori.
• The north wind is blowing — go south. Firiplaka, Provatas or Paleochori will be sheltered when Sarakiniko and Pollonia are choppy.